Eminem has been involved in many feuds since he first entered the mainstream in 1999. From Benzino to Nick Cannon and Machine Gun Kelly, the Detroit emcee (real name Marshall Mathers) has recorded an unfathomable amount of diss tracks. However, on one occasion, he admitted his lyrics went “too far.”
Following the release of Mathers’ tenth studio album, Kamikaze, in 2018, the lyricist sat down for an in-depth interview with the SiriusXM host Sway Calloway to discuss the trajectory of his career as well as some of the feuds that have impinged his journey.
In 2016, Eminem entered one of his most iconic battles with Cleveland rhymer Machine Gun Kelly. In his interview with Sway, Mathers explained how that feud came to be, disclosing, “One day…you know how you go down the f*cking wormhole of YouTube, so I see [a video named] ‘Machine Gun Kelly Talks About Eminem’s Daughter’, I’m like, ‘What the f*ck!’ So I click on it, and then he starts doing a press run about Haile!”
However, Mathers entered another feud with Odd Future frontman Tyler, The Creator. At the time, the Flower Boy musician (real name Tyler Okonma) regularly expressed his dislike for Mathers’ new music. In an interview with HOT 97.0, Okonma stated, “I’m just vocal about sh*t I don’t like!”
However, Eminem hit back at Okonma on the Kamikaze track ‘Fall,’ but in retrospect, admitted to Calloway that he went too far and transgressed the unwritten rules of battle. On the song, Mathers’ rapped, “Tyler create nothing, I see why you called yourself a f*ggot, bitch / It’s not just ’cause you lack attention / It’s because you worship D12’s balls, you’re sack-religious / If you’re gonna critique me, you better at least be as good or better.”
Speaking out about his regrets over the lyrics, Eminem told Sway, “I was angry when I said that shit about Tyler. The fact of like every time I saw this kid, he was always cool to you. I loved his energy. He was a funny dude and he’s super charismatic and shit. But I’m sitting back like, ‘Man at what point do I have to say something to defend myself?’”
He continued, “The word I called him on that song was one of the things that I felt like, ‘This might be too far.’ In my quest to hurt him, I realise I was hurting a lot of other people by saying it. At the time, I was so mad it was whatever … It was one of the things that I kept going back to and going, ‘I don’t feel right with this.’”
You can listen to Eminem and Sway’s sit-down chat in the video below.
